No-Tav

The chestnuts of Clarea
by Maria Matteo

The news in recent months of fighting, demonstrations, repression, nights in the open, on false media firm, hopes, etc.. To restate the reasons for mobilization in Susa Valley, against the arrogance of the state.

Tuesday, September 27. In the archaeological site of La Maddalena is the silence of a long summer and autumn do not want to surrender. No visitors to the Neolithic necropolis, no guys with the mattress of sassisti, those who clamber over the boulders, the boulders. The Museum is closed, transformed for months in camp for the troops occupying the square of La Maddalena, who monitor nets and jersey that close in a grip of the land under the highway. Wherever rapier and barbed wire to strip, to mark the boundary of the fort erected into a symbol of the arrogance of the state. They crushed the grass, cut the trees, made the desert. Inside are men under arms, police, policemen, financiers, forest Alpine. Those Digos run car on the dirt and dust lifting curses. Longer look to see who's who from the woods and the cabin of the No Tav rebels, keeps an eye on the area, walks, counting tanks, keep the movements of trucks. For the paths is not unusual to meet the Cacciatori di Calabria, an elite corp, specialized in raids on the Sila and Aspromonte. They carry a long knife in a sheath on his back, often running with the ski mask to avoid recognition. When you stop someone photographing, the frisk, sometimes seize gloves, helmets, gas masks, all stuff that there is no law which prohibits purchase and bring with you. In recent months a lot of people who had never seen has become familiar with their gas masks. One evening a lady very nicely showed me the mask I just bought one of those that cover the whole face, with a large enclosure for filters. He invited me to try to see if you could wear with glasses. Stuff out of this world but not in Susa Valley: here speaking of masks, gas, nets cut is normal resistance. You do not need emphasis: you must do and do it. Not you can not go, not the destruction can afford. It is no longer just a matter of environment for a long time has become the challenge of those who fight for the public interest against the arrogance of someone who wants to impose by force a useless, dangerous, expensive construction.

They want to scare us

The game on the high speed line between Turin and Lyon became heavier each day. At stake is an entire system, a system developed and oiled for years, friends of friends to ensure to the right and left, a safe and legal plunder. The high-speed lines built in our country have been the backbone of the post-Tangentopoli: an elegant and simple way to dodge all the obstacles, without the risk that a pushy judge put in trouble the whole clique of cronies. Laws target sites of strategic interest, general contractors were some of the tools used to cement a safe system of drainage of public money for very private purposes. A system that works because it is good to all, there is a niche for everyone at the table. A system that no one can afford to blow. A system that the movement against Lyon Turin has made transparent, revealing the mechanisms, opening cracks, building a popular resistance to which many look. Only the strength of a movement that does not give in to the lobby prevents bipartisan TAV to divide the pie of 22 billion euros. The government's strategy is clear: to conceal the reasons for the No TAV fight, declining in the category of public movement that does not regulate to the sound of blows and gas. The stakes go far beyond the deal Tab On the plate is the disciplining of a movement that has become a point of reference for the many who are fighting to safeguard the territory against the squandering of public money for very private purposes. A movement with roots and radical, able to govern themselves, hold, holding fast to its own challenge in years. The TAV propaganda tried to criminalize and split the movement. The best pens are dedicated to the company to invent rifts between the No Tav among local inhabitants and subversive coming from outside. The movement, despite the great diversity of approaches and assessments, the sender was able to repel any attempt to discriminate between good and evil, violent and nonviolent. The police - as called for by the regional Bonino since May, has no limits of engagement. Except, perhaps, to avoid direct contact with the demonstrators. There are countless more injured by tear gas shells, many bearing signs on the body of shots fired at eye level on a regular basis. They want to be afraid. Even if everyone in the face of armed police and arrogant singing "Fear does not have the Susa Valley," the fear is, and how if any. However, despite the heart in my mouth, people always comes back on the trails, aware of risking health and freedom. It comes and it goes again, day after day. Newspapers write that under the pylons of the A32 is the site of the Table in the three months of employment the only workers who have seen have opened and placed on the fences, then disappeared. The propaganda on the Tav leading work has been reduced to a handful of money to companies Segusini, Italcoge and Martina, two companies boiled and in the odor of 'Ndrangheta, which with dubious race were assigned the work of building the site. Meanwhile Italcoge is still failed. This afternoon in late September suddenly a noise breaks the silence. We see a bulldozer that runs between the networks, load a bit 'of land and move about ten feet away, we are distant and do not understand why. We will know then that RAI had just arrived to pick up the special commissioner for the Turin Lyon, head of the observatory as well as technical, Mario Virano, in place of the scam.

Among a garrison and an action

In the same hour, in Paris, the Italian government and the French, sign yet another agreement for cost sharing of the work is international. Italy 57.9%, the rest to France. In the middle of the tunnel-monster of 57 km between Susa and St. Jean de Maurienne, that LTF, the general contractor work, defines a line of plain-made mountain. The mountain is a giant of 3500 meters, the Ambin, somewhere in the 50s the iron mines closed because the workers were dying like flies. Much later you will understand why: the Ambin was rich in uranium. Handle uranium is good for health, so do children. Virano, architect devoted to political undergrowth, was called by the government in the aftermath of the revolt of 2005, when the popular uprising in the Susa Valley forced Berlusconi to make a fast reverse. It was December 10: Turin to Venaus the situation had become unmanageable. Wherever barricades, roadblocks, people who are preparing to blow up the Winter Olympics, which would begin in February 2010. The constitution of the board of mediation and technical policy allowed the government to take the time to try to break the front of No TAV, blowing up the alliance between movement and local institutions. A job in six years has done very little. Only a few mayors have passed - indeed very timidly - on the front is the word Table, after years of negotiations and Vaseline and then return to arms. In spring, the European Commissioner Siim Kallas to transport threatened to withdraw EU funds for the Torino Lyon if the yard had not been opened. Thrown off the table administrators No Tav, everything was fine. Except, of course, a particularly annoying, but not negligible, as the wide popular opposition, rooted in the firm decision to get in the way of trying to block the start of work. It took a month and a half to launch an attack to occupy the area. From 22 May, the day of the first feeble attempt to place the fences, to June 27, when hundreds and hundreds of men in the service state of disorder, have raided the barricades that protected the Free Republic of the La Maddalena. After the occupation was followed by months of resistance, almost daily, with law enforcement initiatives, information and protest. Among a garrison and an action, there were meetings, meetings of committees, more or less formal discussions between a pasta cooked in a cabin and a tour of the vineyards. It discusses the future of the long fall that awaits us, the choices to make. The government has carefully chosen the place to launch an attack, a remote area, difficult to achieve, where you can gassing in war and then tell the No Tav are violent. Have been shown to have learned the lesson of 2005. Have focused on gas and fences. A prosecutor's strict compliance "Democratic" as Caselli took on the task of distributing hundreds of complaints, dozens of papers, order house searches and arrests. The government fears a revolt which spread from Turin upper valley, fearing a repeat of the 2005 scenarios. If a barricade is located in each country, if the blocks are multiplied, the situation becomes unmanageable. The troops and the violence may not be enough anymore, because dealing with social issues such as public business is easy, as long as the dissent, however broad, is concentrated in the siege to the fort of La Maddalena. At this time the risks are two: to isolate La Maddalena in a siege on the military level, we can only lose the illusion that you are only playing the game there. Or who wants to blow the fight on a mere witness, delegating the umpteenth box of the “commons” No TAV representation of instances, No Debt, No incinerator ... Still a “movement of movements” for today as ten years ago, to drown in molasses, the social forum in the illusion that the system is reformed from the bottom. Today the challenge is to get out the funnel which has pushed the government, widening the conflict, by multiplying the blocks, playing on the surprise, throwing playing cards of wanted by Maroni and his. Some signals have already been there. From Cacerolazos to the hotels to block the police station. Flush out the troops from La Maddalena is possible. But not enough sieges. It should be a little 'everywhere, disrupting the military and political apparatus built by the government.

We have been hunted, but we're still here

The grass in the picnic area has grown back. Green, strong, invincible, which hides the signs of Tracked on July 3 they roam up and down, swallowing the last cs shells, poison gas fired dozens of times against those who tried to challenge the occupation, to damage the nets. The Jersey and barbed wire surround a stranglehold on the lawn, the square, the tombs of the Neolithic. Behind, like caged animals, the police move. Getting here every time makes the heart sick: the memory of long days at the Free Republic, where a new project between the barricade and the discussion on food, shifts, we talked for long hours in the world today and we would like. A community strong. Made of Susa and people from outside, made of all those who know that freedom is not begging but you take. We have been hunted, but we are still here. In this square we saw play children and grandchildren, we remembered those who have left us over the years, the flag with the train cross on the coffin. People like Raoul, that one day he gave up his home in Meana and moved to the presidium of Venaus: Before you put that on a hut sleeping in a tent, every day you get up early to get where he was a worker at Mirafiori. One you could not like him to label, fled schemes. As the movement No Tav A beautiful chestnut and strong is full of curls. We give away to the police and they have paid off. One day we will return and those networks there will be no more.

Maria Matteo

The darkness and the network

Wednesday, August 31, in front of the gate that blocks access to the streets of Havana. We are in the Susa Valley, in Chiomonte. Here until 1713 he ran the boundary line between the Escarton Oulx and the Duchy of Savoy. On the main road a stone reminiscent of the Treaty of Utrecht, which marked the birth of the kingdom of Sardinia and the end of the autonomy of Escarton Oulx, Pragelato and Casteldefino. On the other side of the valley until a few years ago there was the Tower of Holies, where the duty is paid. It was destroyed by work on the highway. A few meters from the ancient border in the months of May and June was erected barricades that protected one of the Free Republic of the La Maddalena. In the latter days of summer, the roar of the guardrail struck by stones and sticks echoes through the valley, witnessing a tenacious will to not give up, to continue the resistance. Next to me there are two children between seven and ten years. Canottierina blue stone in his hand and beat the rhythm serious serious. It is not a game. Or maybe yes. It is the only game worth playing, that of freedom, the dignity that will not bend even before the military occupation. While the guardrail play their music, so many van up the path opened by the No Tav in the vineyards where it is grown Havana, poisoned by two months of bombing cs gas, tear gas used to defend the besieged fort to Mary Magdalene. The harvest is about to begin but the road is closed by two strong gates manned day and night by armed men. Thus by June 27, when troops attacked the barricades of the state, gas fired, they whirl their sticks. Despite the summer holidays, the fear of the gases that burn the throat and skin, despite the complaints, the raids, the constant harassment of the occupation troops, day after day, went on disruptive actions, protests, the demonstrations. What follows is a chronicle of some of those fast days.

Barricades and lights

It all starts May 22. It will be for tonight. The tom-tom sounds of frantic movement: wherever there are eyes and ears. You go to Chiomonte. For a few hours chainsaws are making their music. On the road from Enel leads the archaeological site of La Maddalena falling trees, piling pieces of guardrail and old sleepers, some rock, all that is needed to erect the barricade. Only a crescent moon lights the hundreds of No Tav scattered in the woods, in the short stretch of dirt road adjacent to the highway. Many shadows cross solidarity between short gleam of torches. Around three in the morning the highway is closed to vehicles and troops arrive and Susa. The majority still remains in the gallery: a lot 'of stones are poured on the lane, advise against going forward. A good half hour of slogans, shouting, singing. Then he falls silent. At about half past four police trucks and leave the highway. That night did not pass. But we know that will be.

The long wait
So many nights waiting for the police attack on the Free Republic of the La Maddalena, many nights with one eye open and one closed. With the fear that takes and accelerates the heart, someone with a fear for their playful and carefree teenage children from a barricade and a game of cards. Others think age is not greener and ailments, and others in the eye with a taste for challenge with the powerful who want to steal and destroy. All were determined to resist. A firm foot. Bugianen.

Barricades mobile and nonsense of the press

From May 24 to 30. We are in the woods of the Val Clarea. The meeting point is the house built in masonry construction in the area intended to TAV. The house, pulled up by masons No TAV between autumn and winter, is situated on a land bought with the campaign by No TAV "buy a front row seat." The Free Republic of the La Maddalena is sinking down strong roots in the earth that men want to destroy the state. Around the garrison Clarea by the hour tends to multiply, the comings and goings is continuous. There are those who brings food, those who drink, those who work to strengthen the defenses. A lot of people. Young and young and old. Different people in history, political and social paths, way of dressing and speaking. Clarea to blend the many differences that are the wealth of a movement, which has neither the right time fathers or godfathers, a movement that walks on its legs. The boys jump here and there, enjoying the taste of adventure, including the tree house and the shrine - abuse like everything here - pulled up along the path. After the failed assault on 22 May the press went wild. The stones thrown in the desert a highway, it closed for hours by the forces of disorder, have increased from hour to hour. Before then I had 200 become 700. The newspapers write about "attack on workers, motorists and police." No one notices the incongruity of the stones that do not hit anyone.

Thursday, May 26 at the People's Assembly of Bussoleno Versatile is one of those that remain in memory. The theater is full of people: many are still standing, squat down, crowd onto the stage, listening from outside listening. So many souls, but clear ideas: the game is played on the mountains. Us with the strength of our reasons, men fully armed state. Friday 27, meet politicians and businessmen, left and right, and speak clearly. We will make the yard at all costs. The Regional Minister Bonino says very clearly "" There is no limit of engagement when it comes to actions that protect the safety of citizens. We are on the side of law enforcement. "It is the go-ahead for slaughter. on the night of May 30 and 29 seem that good. the prefect warned the Mountain Community. the popular response is loud and clear. hundreds and hundreds flock to the call of No Tav. the field kitchen goes on all night , cranking out pasta, salads, omelets, pastries, coffee, tea all night. we do meetings, discussions, work in groups of people talk about what lies ahead. the hours pass, the blue flashing do not break the spell of the night. A long night. at dawn many go to work yarns from the barricade.

In the woods of the rebels

After three weeks of the square of the garrison Magdalene has become a comfortable place. Between the tent of "Free the Alps" where every hour is a plate of pasta, a slice of hot coffee or a toma and tables where you eat and discuss humanity is gathered in solidarity. How often, looks wrinkled sleep intersect in the long nights of vigil, including the square, the barricade of the central and the highway. In recent weeks, the Free Republic of Magdalene grew: daily meetings, films, debates, lectures of teachers who leave the classroom in the woods of rebels. Continuously discussing and confronting everything from pipe to be welded to reinforce the defenses to the pasta for vegans, the defense strategies of the small area free of the No Tav, the discussion on the next few months of struggle. A long chatter that is a sign of political passion and social habit of direct participation, the fight for the long term.

Bullets too-smart

Media and politicians continue, day after day, to build the theorem of the No Tav and violent extremists, useful to give the green light to violent action of the government forces of disorder. Leading the way in asking to send the army has deployed the majority of Democrats in Piedmont. The bullets used in an envelope for the honorable Democrats and Merlo Edwards sparked the uproar against the No Tav, accused of being violent. Nothing new northwest. Each time the fight came to TAV at a critical point arrived on time envelopes stuffed with bullets. So precise that between Turin and the No Tav Rocciamelone many think that such a punctuality is more than suspicious. In twenty years of fighting violence speed trains, the real one, that of one who breaks the heads and fire principals have tasted only in 2005 in Venaus No Tav, in 2010 Coldimosso when there is a close call escaped the dead man and a woman had to do months of hospital for the beating that he split his face.

The monster and the barricade

Sunday 26 / Monday 27 June.
Everyone knows what to expect. When night begins to arrive from the desert at dawn changing colors and locked the first means. There is an eerie silence, a suspended calm. The giant bulldozer advances alone on the highway: the guardrail approaches, hesitates, stops in front of the barricades full of people, who proudly defy the monster. On the highway, suddenly appears Turi. Barefoot running towards the bulldozer, brandishing two heads of garlic. The cops shoot, the plating, if you take him away. From all cry aloud to the square barricade, some rhythmically beat the guard rail. It's like the drawings Marcolino, who for years mark the walls and piers of the motorway: a man in front of the monster and para, about the people who resist. Advance and the bulldozers begin giant with pliers to break up the barricades. The monster, regardless of the people hanging precariously on the railings of the fence, go ahead knock them down. Then the tear gas. A toxic cloud and malignant sailing the blue of a morning clear. The gas burns the skin, smothers, people recedes. The anger is so great. The cops advance, flying stones, chairs, whatever happens. Many take the path to Ramats chased by agents who continue to fire gases. Climb out of breath with swollen eyes and for gas and anger. You look at your face, you exchange greetings and many ask "how are you? Need a hand? "And while you stretch a bottle of water, a biscuit. The police denounce wounded 64, the protesters have "officially" thirty. The marks of the blows I see them one by one on their faces, arms and legs of those who gather to Ramats exhausted.

The assembly
On the evening of the multipurpose room at Bussoleno is immediately packed: many are left out, others had to cram each other in a bucket of sweat. They all stood to applaud those who resisted. Sunday, July 3rd was proclaimed a national demonstration. If you think you are wrong and are scared of big.

The day after
The state has taken everything. The museum has become the bivouac for the Maroni Cossacks, the road is trodden. Concrete, barbed wire, 800 men in arms. Military occupation. Already in the early hours of Tuesday, 28 the No Tav have returned to the bridge over the Dora, where there is now a military checkpoint that blocks and identifies the people. A new garrison is being born in front of the checkpoint. In the evening at Susa twenty thousand people participate in the torchlight procession: The procession is a snake biting its own tail. An unequivocal answer to those who say that the air is changed, that people have changed their minds. The tents pitched in the woods were torn and filled with excrement.

Around the nets

Sunday 3 July. The banner of the children who opened the procession, the band playing, the banners, the resistance of a thousand people of Italy that is mixed. Many people with one big goal: to lay siege to the fort built at the Madeleine from occupation troops. The procession winds for hours Exilles along the highway and from there down to the piers in the middle of the highway until the steel barrier and barbed wire placed at the entrance of the climb to the Magdalene, shortly after the hydroelectric plant. There is also the red and black piece of social anarchists, that hundreds have responded to the call for the event from all over Italy, dividing his time between the parade and the siege from many paths. Who felt it was down to the woods, others have chosen the way: but the day belongs to everyone. The siege goes on for hours and hours from morning until evening. The drop from the No Tav Ramats, appears Giaglione, across the street of George. Even the Central, once escaped the march where many have chosen to bring their children, begins the pressure against the fences. At the end of the day there will be many casualties, impossible to count them all, because only the most serious go to the hospital, the others are treated by doctors and nurses on No Tav site. Someone goes on in the face with the marks of the blows received last week. Who looks out to the networks are greeted by a dense CS tear gas, a weapon of war, which has been banned from events elsewhere. The shots are often devastating effects on people with direct. The most seriously wounded were hit by tear gas fired at close range. As if that were not enough police officers and police throw stones: they shoot from behind the fence, throw them on the protesters who are under the highway. Who can defend and shoot you in turn stones. The battle is, but the resistance will not let go. On Ramats fronts, and the Central Giaglione the No Tav continue their siege for more than six hours. In a couple of points the fence yields to pressure. The police still gassing: the protesters but then retreat back to advance. The strength of their arguments is more tenacious of the reasons of brute force. Who falls in the hands of the troops of the State is insulted and tortured. A policeman, he slipped and fell to the ground, is abandoned by his comrades are to be the No Tav him back among his. Four protesters were arrested and taken to the prison in Turin. The next day the newspapers tell a different story, repeating a script already written and worn for years: the litany of peaceful people and bad black bloc, the opposition between the peaceful residents and professionals from abroad. Politics and politicians are finally breaking the illusion of movement, splitting into good and bad, between peaceful and violent. They are wrong. In the press conference the next day to Chiomonte be said loud and clear: "we are the black bloc."

Cacerolazo

Friday, July 15, Clarea Hut. A beautiful day greets us from the morning. The band of "Turin & Belt will be tough" comes in dribs and drabs: there are also a couple of Fiat workers on strike. We are armed to the teeth: whistles, pots and pans, a portable amp, three megaphones. On the square waving the tricolor of the occupation troops. Flutters in a cage surrounded by barbed wire, a metaphor of the real violence of the state. At the hut we exchange cheese and fried pasta, ribs and sandwiches. Then we go. We climb the fences and we stop a little 'to play and beat the pots. The cage is filled immediately Digos going up and down. Then we decided to climb: there is no path, climb, already steep, is made difficult by barbed wire. But in the end there is the reward we get in the way of Avanà placed right outside the gate to close the final part of the road. They are initiated by the instruments. Then we come back, passing through the streets of Avanà, falling behind the Check Point.

Siege
Friday, July 22. To the presidium of the Central, after the bridge over the Dora, is the day of the encirclement. Backpacks, lemons, bottles of water and Malox, gas masks of all shapes sprout from every side. For a week the police barricaded behind the two dams that close access to the streets of Avanà, shoot tear gas that surround the No Tav siege to the fort by the State to put on Magdalene occupied. Just typing a more intense, cut a piece of the network to trigger retaliation with water cannons and noxious gases. But the No Tav have a hard head. Some go from Giaglione, they walk on the path No other TAV, which connects the "central" with the area of the hut, walking around the square occupied. The trail marker with a lot of "No TAV" was opened, cleaned and scored in the previous days. In every corner of the rhythmic beatings begin: there are people on the road down the middle as on the one that leads to the junction for the Ramats. On the track "No TAV" hundreds of flashing lights: a snake that taps the mountain of light shine. At the center, along the road and in the fort / chicken on top, there are powerful lights that illuminate the day barbed wire, container, part of the vineyards. The low-power and arrogant occupant shatters the night, hiding the sky, as in a war movie set. Giaglione side is lit a bonfire under the piers of the motorway, while the group started from the middle reaches of the cage. Men in uniform fire: a shower of tear gas descends on the No Tav, flying stones and some paper bomb explodes. The police decided once again to close the A32 between Susa and Oulx. From the road that descends to the country Chiomonte and the roar of the ever stronger blows up. All eyes are directed towards the other side of the mountain from which rises a white thick smoke, like a cauldron. Who is there, but away from the scrum looks participation and affection. "But those who are they?" Will be the police? "" No, No! ones do not leave the chicken coop! "" Your daughter is there? You hear that? "" No, better not, call you later. " I feel a companion: "How are you? Are you all right? "" Yes, now is fine: we were lost, but then I found the path. For nearly tumbling down: Fortunately another friend caught me on the fly. We have killed the gas. " A fireworks display the night breaks.

From Kabul to Chiomonte: away the alpini!

Saturday, July 23, Clarea Hut. The No TAV network "turin & Belt will be tough" have come together for an anti-militarist day. The alpine Taurinense, arrived in the last redoubt of the Magdalene, they stay away from the nets. The government, after much dithering, decided to use the army in the Susa Valley. After the war in Afghanistan, in refugee camps in the peninsula or in the suburbs of our cities are ready for Mary Magdalene. In the afternoon we go to the cages for a noisy greeting to newcomers: necklaces of flowers, confetti bombs, a banner reading "From Kabul to Chiomonte: Alpine away." Attach to plastic and paper nets, where each write your own message to the newcomers “Soldà drilling of the bale!”," The people of the Alps Alpine attack "," No to all wars. "Then the beating on the gate. A good half hour and then you go. Along the fence with barbed wire have closed the walkway that allowed up to the paved road, but we find a way to get the same: to arrive on the streets of Avanà, open up the banner and set off in procession toward the center. Half way we encounter the police in riot gear, who explained by signs that we can not go further. The arguments are crude but unmistakable.

Alpini of the people, gas, one seriously injured

Sunday, July 24, the Central No Tav garrison. The No TAV who made the mountain are many in Valsusa: participated in the defense of Mary Magdalene, and are present at the siege, real "alpini of the people." As a former daring of World War I, who chose to oppose fascism, have decided to stand against the military occupation of their valley. Speeches, songs, and then the march on the path to the square until the No Tav. On the other side of the cage are veterans of Afghanistan, the guards of the CIE, mercenaries who have chosen the profession of weapons. Like every night, in the garrison there are meetings, chatting, children playing. The first of the two gates that lock the streets of Avanà begins typing. A piece of the gate is down. The reaction of the police is immediate: they shoot hundreds of cartridges of CS gas, regardless of the children, the elderly, the eating and drinking Sunday crowd. A No TAV is approaching the gate to take some pictures: shoot him a stick in the face breaking his nose and jaw, cutting off the lips and palate.

Collaborators

Tuesday, July 26, avenue Couvert, Susa. From six in the morning about two hundred No TAV greet incoming and outgoing transport of Italcoge, one of the companies from June 27 to cooperate with the forces of disorder in the state to build the fort of La Maddalena. Slogans, flags, a cap on the gasoline side, and then comes back. Over all a catchy chant that soon becomes contagious. "Why, why, you call yourselves workers? You are servants of the police and there never complained! "Sort of a gauntlet where trucks and cars are forced to go without, however, that there isn't a blockage of the departures. Those who collaborate with the occupiers must find it hard.

Pots, complaints and fogli di via

Wednesday, August 3, Avigliana. At around 9 am seventy No TAV can be found at the hotel Ninfa, one of the hotels that have agreed to host the occupation troops. The No TAV is fully armed with pots, lids, whistles, vuvuzuelas, bull's horn and banner reading "on the occupation forces". Are placed at the entrance and began to whistle and beat. A classic Cacerolazo. Here come the cops. 16 No TAV are intercepted and arrested by the state forces of disorder. All phones are loaded on and taken to police headquarters. The 16 battipentole dangerous are held by the police for the whole day. There frisk them, entered with mug shots and fingerprinting. House searches to look for weapons in the houses are made in the homes of three of the detainees. In the houses were found the weapons used in the morning: it seems that everyone had a robust arsenal of pots, spoons and lids. All are charged with aggravated assault in the competition. The icing on the cake on a sheet of rain. For three French expulsion from Italy, for others, except one, the prohibition to go in the towns of Avigliana, Susa, Gravesend, Chiomonte, Giaglione Exilles.

Turi, the rope and the TGV

Presidium of Chiomonte Gravel, August 4, 2011. Nicola and Stefano are chained to the gate that locks the streets of Avanà. Nicola has not eaten in 13 days, Stefano and Turi have just begun. Nicola has also decided to make the fast water. The three No TAV struggle against the militarization and worksheets imposed on the police station in Turin to some activists. The police threatened a charge, then decides to give up. In the afternoon Turi sneaks past the gate, jump the fence and climbing fast on a high dry pine in the middle. Here come the firemen, the police shake. Turi has decided to implement a protest against the blatant and violent military occupation. He wants to break the silence on the fast No TGV, but above all he wants that force of arms gives way to the reasons of the dialogue. Hard to imagine that those who based their power on the legal monopoly of violence will give way to moral force. A bet as difficult as it is fascinating. Probably a utopia, however, that feeds the imaginative force of a man in shorts, barefoot and helpless that challenge, putting their lives at stake, the military apparatus of the state. Turi sings, invites the military to return to their homes, to abandon the uniform.

Condove, 20.15 hours. Some three hundred flags armed No TAV are found in the marketplace. A short meeting and then all to the station. The No TAV longer the flags and the TGV stops.

On horseback of an excavator

Tuesday, August 16. They waited for the week of ferragosto for the thrust to the nets. They arrive early in the morning and forcibly evicted the three No Tav on hunger strike chained at the entrance of the fort. The bulldozers arrive and begin to place new poles for the fence. At the lodge there are few people, but gradually they come other. At noon two activists manage to overcome the police and climb on the arm of a large excavator. Work will stop for a couple of hours, the two agree to get down in exchange for the release of three No TAV detained in the morning. In the evening another friend manages to get the excavator, while others cut off the nets just placed. Only during the night will end the fence. At sunset a hundred No TAV blocks the road for about two hours down the motorway. Police respond by flooding the area of gas Clarea hut, where a group of activists are mounting a "tree camp", a camp-resistant on trees.

Night of siege

Friday, September 9. The No TAV start Giaglione and Chiomonte for a night of siege nets. Have not yet arrived at the fence, which starts a barrage of tear gas. Who is not protected must move away, others remain and try to take down the nets. The police do a sortie outside and two No Tav activists stopped a few meters the net is cut. The two girls, Nina and Marianna, captured during the protest to the nets of the night of September 9, they are arrested and held in custody by the investigating magistrate, although both were uncensored. Nina, a chiomontina mother of three children, had her backpack full of bandages, gauze, first aid medicines. Volunteer nurse has always been at the forefront to help the wounded, the intoxicated, the blinded. Only after 10 days in jail will give the house arrest to Nina, the requirement of residence in Marianna. At the hearing will be present to support the request of the prosecution, the Attorney General himself, Giancarlo Caselli. A long applause open to the public assembly of Polyvalent Villarfocchiardo of 23 September. Is the greeting of the No Tav Nina and Marianna.

Maria Matteo